1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a system and method, which allows a requester to contact a communication apparatus user, and in particular, to a system and method which provides wireless directory and other information assistance services.
2. Description of the Related Art
Despite the proliferation of wireless communication devices such as cellular telephones, pagers and the like, there currently exists no way to obtain a user's wireless telephone or pager identification number such as exists for traditional business and residential phone number information services, for example, by dialing “411” or by using a global communication network such as the Internet to access on-line “white pages.”
In part, this lack of wireless apparatus information is due to the multitude of service providers offering wireless services, and the different methods by which the service providers store the wireless apparatus device identification numbers. This problem is also caused by the distribution arrangement entered into between many organization clients and the wireless apparatus service providers in which the wireless apparatus service providers allocate a block of apparatuses and wireless identification numbers to the client, without specifically tracking the particular individuals, such as employees, to whom those apparatuses have been distributed.
Typically, an organization client will be listed in the service provider's database as opposed to each individual holder of the wireless apparatus. As such, there currently exists no efficient way to determine the specific individual holder of a wireless apparatus in the context of an organization client.
In addition, there has traditionally been no market demand for the establishment of an information repository, such as a white pages directory, for wireless apparatus subscribers, because the wireless service providers have typically assumed that subscribers would not want their identification numbers published. This is primarily the result of the cost of receiving unwanted calls on their wireless devices due to typical billing arrangements in which the user of the wireless apparatus is billed for inbound, i.e., received calls and messages.
Current telephone assistance systems generally provide information to a requester or calling party for land based listings or subscribers to land-based service providers. Here a requester calls the system where there are greeted by a customer service representative who looks up the information on a land-based subscriber and conveys that information to the requester.
One drawback to the current telephone assistance system is that the listings available of land-based subscribers do not include a comprehensive listing of wireless subscribers. Because of certain concerns such as privacy issues surrounding wireless systems and both party billing, wireless service providers do not automatically post wireless phone number listings in the traditional directory assistance databases.
Another drawback to current telephone assistance systems is the failure to utilize meaningfully the period between the time the requested information is retrieved by a customer service representative and the time the requester receives the requested information. This period is referred to as the closing period where the directory assistance service provides a closing prompt to the requester. Typically, this closing prompt is a single recorded message such as the familiar “We are connecting you to NPA.nxx.xxxx. Thank you for using XYZ” where XYZ is the name of the service provider of the requester.
As a result, it is desirable to have a system and method which permits the efficient acquisition of data necessary to create and maintain a database which identifies the actual wireless apparatus holders and their identification numbers in a manner which allows for quick retrieval by an operator or other communications interface technologies such as, for example, WAP (wireless applications protocol), Internet search or voice recognition systems. Further, it is also desirable to have a system and method which allows a requesting individual to be connected to the wireless apparatus such that they can engage in communications with the wireless apparatus user in a manner which does not require the disclosure of the wireless apparatus identification number. As such, it is desirable to preserve the currently existing confidentiality of wireless apparatus identification numbers unless the wireless apparatus user authorizes disclosure of the identification number.
It is also desirable to create a system capable of meaningfully utilizing the closing period and thus adding to the functionalities offered by the closing prompt feature.
It is further desirable to have a system and method which allows a billing mechanism arranged so that the requesting individual pays for the cost of the call, page message and the like to the wireless apparatus user such that the wireless apparatus user does not incur any costs for the receipt of the inbound communication.